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Regola Recommends Rollback of State PIT
HARRISBURG -- One
of the first pieces of legislation rolled out by freshman state Senator Bob
Regola is a measure likely to find quite an audience among taxpayers -- a
rollback of the state personal income tax.
Regola is calling for a two-stage cut that would
drop the PIT rate to the level in place before the Rendell increase of 2003 --
2.8%. The change could save state taxpayers over $800 million a year when fully
implemented. A medium-income family of four would realize a first-year savings
of $90 and would save $784 over a five-year period under this plan.
“For the taxpayers, this is a simple issue of
fairness. State taxes were increased substantially, there is now a sizable
state surplus accumulating, so it is time to start giving the money back,”
Regola said.
“State-funded property tax relief is still several
years away at best, so no one is seeing any reduction anywhere as a tradeoff for
the higher state taxes. Plus, a lot of school districts are seriously
discussing declining to participate in the property tax relief program, which
would deny taxpayers in those areas any tax relief,” he noted.
“Based on the mounting state surplus, and the
projections of even better returns ahead, this proposal is not a budget-buster.
The numbers work, and there are a couple of important principles involved --
state taxpayers will no longer be asked to pay more to Harrisburg than they need
to, and all this extra money will not be available for bureaucrats to fuel
another expansion of state government. Taxpayers deserve a chance to get off
the state treadmill of bigger government and higher taxes,” Regola explained.
“For too many families, being hit by rising costs
for fuel, for health care, for just about every service and necessity, they
cannot afford state government that constantly gets more expensive too. People
desperately want to see state spending controlled, and there is no better way to
do that than by reducing the tax burden,” he pointed out.
“We owe it to the people of Pennsylvania to try to
phase out Governor Rendell’s PIT increase when we’re seeing surplus revenues
like we are,” Senate Majority Leader Chip Brightbill said. “I’m proud to
co-sponsor this bill, and thrilled that Senator Regola is already proving to be
a leader in the fight for fiscal responsibility.”
“Over the years, whenever there was a major state
tax increase, there has been a subsequent reduction in state taxes when the
economy improved. We need to find the fiscal discipline to reduce taxes for
families, and this proposal is a popular approach, fiscally defensible, and
worthy of consideration for action this year,” Senator Robert C. Jubelirer
stated.
More details on the Regola tax reduction plan is
available at
www.senatorregola.com.
Five Year Tax Savings for Pennsylvania Family of
Four
(Median Income According to United States Census
Bureau)
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Median Pennsylvania Family of Four in
2002: $64,310.00
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First Year Tax Savings: $90.03
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Second thru Fifth Year Tax Savings:
$694.55
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Total Five Year Tax Savings for Average
Pennsylvania Family of Four: $784.58
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